Theory-Building in Border Studies: The View from North America

Author

Payan, Tony

Abstract

The sub-discipline of border studies has struggled to construct theories that can render explanatory and predictive models. Most work on border studies has been largely confined to descriptive inference under the justification that it is nearly impossible to theorize such multidisciplinary and geographically scattered phenomenon as borders and borderlands. In this article, I argue that theorizing in border studies would go a long way if much more attention were paid to methods instead of focusing on the nature of the phenomenon of borders and borderlands. Careful attention to methods will help render sets of variables amenable to theory building.